Ash
"Rion...don't you think humans have a suicide wish? They try to live longer, only to meet a more terrible death. They're such...sickening hypocrites." ''- Ash'' Ash is the main antagonist of Galerians: Ash. He is known as the Last Galerian, the ultimate of Dorothy's creations. Actually, it is revealed that he is not even a biological being but a computer program. While his birth and only purpose is to theoretically resurrect Dorothy, should anything happen to her, he has his own secret personal agenda and started a war against humans only for himself. Ash was voiced by Dave Wittenberg in English and by Shin-ichiro Miki in Japanese. Personality and role Ash is the leader of the Last Galerians, the ultimate of Dorothy's warriors. Powerful, intelligent and seemingly invincible, leading most of Mother's creations. Arabesque, Rabbits, and robots are all under his command. Above all, Ash lead the Galerian race to near victory against the humans with almost no difficulty. He is only finally stopped by the combined actions of both Lilia and Rion. Ash has a great ego, at the point it can be considered pride; if not he is actually winning the war for most of the game. He has no great consideration of mankind and neither to Rion, highly doubting he can really defeating him with the virus. Still, this faith in himself can be considered justified, since at their first fight, Rion cannot seem to harm him. Ash comments that the reason is because Rion is full of useless trash, expelling him from the Waste Uranium Storage, like he doesn't even considering him worth to be killed by him. While doing this, however, he acts in a controlled, relaxed and even regal manner. He doesn't looses this composure neither when Rion discovers the truth behind his creation, instead looking almost disappointed he needed so much time. Despite being the leader of a great army, Ash doesn't appears at all on battlefield, preferring to let the actual fights to his three lieutenant. Talking about his relationship with the last Galerians, while he is their leader, he doesn't looks to pretend so much respect or deference from them, not getting angry or annoyed by Parano's statement he didn't kill Rion because he is a coward, instead smiling and ask why Parano doesn't do it by himself, and that he won't try to stop him. This can be a slight manipulation to get his underling to do his dirty work, but it's almost certain he lets them a certain degree of freedom to handle certain missions as they please. Still, he has not mercy in killing Parano when he returns by his second battle with Rion, expressing openly disgust for the latter's weakness. Still, since he notes Parano was now afraid of Rion, thus mentally unable to sustain another battle against him, this can be considered a calculated, even merciless, act of pragmatism rather than sadism. While he is never shows acting similarly to Spider and Nitro, he doesn't show any kind of sorrow for their deaths. Even he posses a great raw force, Ash is also fairly intelligent and manipulative, as he kept secret his true nature from mankind, letting them to believe they were facing a being of flesh and bones, and not an A.I.; as well as doing an agreement with Major Romero to destroy the human headquarters on the promises to spare him, Lilia and conserving the human DNA; even it's never shows if he is a "man" of his word. Also, his main tactics for the war is polluting the world with high doses of radiations; something which is very lethal for humans, but not so much for Galerians, and completely harmless for him. While he looked to be loyal to Dorothy, trying to resurrect her, he actually feels nothing but despite and hate towards her. It's revealed Ash suffered her cruelty since his birth, being created captive in a prison of data, in a conscious state, with the goal to study humans and resurrect Dorothy, if she would have died. When Ash was some kind of infant, a status emphasized by his child's voice, and asked what would have been his final fate, if nothing would have happened to her, Dorothy brutally tortured him, asking if it was so difficult for him to "live for his mother", and stopped only when the young and sentient A.I., crying, begged for forgiveness. Ash reveals to Rion that, if he would have completed his assigned mission, he would have become a mere program designed to administer the nuclear reactor supposed for feeding Dorothy with energy. So, while he could have resurrect her almost immediately after his release, he waited patiently for six years, in order to become strong enough to bring back his abusive creator in the same prison she kept him at his birth, enjoying her screams of terror. As a kind of karmic justice, making her a mere resource for his plans, a complete reversal of theirs role. This shows that Ash, like Rion and Rita, has a strong sense of self; but the one with the greatest grudge against Dorothy. Ash's feelings towards humans are ambiguous: sometime he looks to despite them, even calling them hypocrites, sometime he looks to not consider them worth of so much consideration. However, he reveals to Rion that, in the past, he felt envy towards them, since they posses a physical body, able to feel the sun's warmth or theirs lungs full of air; a sensation he has a lot of difficulty to imagination, since he never had one. He says to have been able to overcome this feeling by convincing himself that the lack of body made him a perfect being, not polluted by emotions or sensations. This desire to become, or being, something greater, is similar, but very different by Dorothy's, not really focusing simply about absolute power. His relationship with Rion is a complex one : while in the first half of the game Ash continues to belittle him, he never tries to execute him personally, and taking a lot of time to talk with him about his philosophy and ideals, as well of Rion's. It's possible Ash feels some respect for the man who firstly managed to humiliate and killing Dorothy, but that he is disgusted by Rion's attachment towards mankind; something that, by Ash's point of view, rather than an enjoyable bond, can be seen as slavery or imprisonment, both things he surely doesn't want to suffer anymore. Before their final battle, Ash congratulates Rion for his "ascension"(physical death) as a pure program without bonds with flesh and sensations, still asking the boy to submits to him. When Rion refuses, Ash doesn't look to consider it like an act of disrespect or an insult, like Dorothy did, but more like a thrilling contest. It is more and more evident that Ash is trying to get some connection with Rion, but still wants to be dominant over the man that killed their mother while he couldn't. When he realizes he is losing the battle, Ash discovers that the last Galerians, which he never considers so much, are all designed by his subconscious to reflect some of his emotions, something he is desperately trying to delete. He is apparently repulsed and disgusted by this revelation, and tries to kill himself. When things don't go as he planned, he looks to suffer some kind of mental breakdown, and brutally proceeds to destroying and consuming the screaming and scared Dorothy to enhance himself to fights Rion, saying superbly to his opponent he can't defeat him. However, Ash is ultimately defeated, and when Rion transmitted him the virus, and what can be called human warmth, he immediately stopped to fight, unable to believe he feels so good. He comments that, despite all, he can't really hate Rion and finally dies, finding peace. Finally, Ash was more the scared and rancorous child abused by Dorothy rather than a bloodthirsty tyrant; desperate to create a new identity for himself and to escape from his mother's shadow. While he tried to eradicated everything he felt made him suffer, like mankind, denying he could ever care about "useless" things like sensations and emotions, he couldn't denied to himself the, unexpected, pleasure he took from human warmth, something he never felt in his all life, and that ironically comes from Rion, his supposed deadly nemesis; ultimately experimenting a some kind of joy and a peaceful death. With the Last Galerian's final breath, and the cancellation of both by Pan's hands, the world, along with Ash and Rion, was finally free from every evil Dorothy left, and her legacy destroyed once for all. In few words The truth about Ash is that he can not really be considered a Galerian, because he is not a human, biologically advanced or not, but a computer program. His sole purpose was to be the resurrection of Dorothy, should anything happen to her. Discontent with that purpose, when Rion destroyed Dorothy, Ash used it as an opportunity to completely rewrite his program, so that, when he did resurrect Dorothy, she would be under his control, instead of the other way around. Ash ingests radioactive material which causes him to become extremely powerful. Rion cannot seem to harm him with psychic powers on their first encounter. Ash comments that the reason is because Rion is full of useless trash. Another truth about Ash, that even he does not realize until the end of the game, is that Spider, Parano, and Nitro do not exist but as mere facets of his own twisted and pained personality: Spider was created from Ash's feelings of rebellion and longing to escape from Dorothy. Parano was born because of Ash's feelings of hatred for his own weaknesses and wanting to be rid of them. Nitro was born from the sorrow and pain Ash lived with and tried to hide, even from himself. He and Rion were frozen only as data, which Rion requested that Pat delete all trace of. Ash and Rion are the last Galerians to be killed, or more specifically, deleted. Powers and abilities Ash is arguably Rion's most powerful adversary. He was able to destroy human world and bring their species near to extinction with little to no effort, using both his army and intelligence, appearing almost invincible until Rion's return. He was able to resurrect Dorothy, after having rewritten her program, as well as his, so she became his slave, and a source of energy that could be used as he pleased. Enhancing his "body" (at least what looks to be one) eating uranium, he is able to win their first battle completely unharmed. He is able float, and to create from himself a giant nuclear explosion. It's said he is able to spread radiation from his body, and he doesn't suffer from this. He can also duplicate himself during one cutscene where he is talking to Rion, but never uses this ability in battle. He use some kind of laser gun (called a "noise gun" in both the English and Japanese versions); able, following his words, to completely delete someone's data, even he used it not only against the data composed Rion in their final battle, but also against Parano, a biological being, even though in what looked to be his world of data. What exactly is Ash's noise gun isn't clearly explained by the game but it could be assumed to be a weapon that exists in at least the data world, capable of digitally harming other Galerians and computer programs. Nitro also is seen wielding the noise gun in her attempt to delete Rion's data after her second boss fight. During his final battle with Rion, especially after having consumed Dorothy, he shows a much greater force: beams of energy and fire, teleporting, summoning and manipulation by psychokinesis of flying red sharp tops, ability to alter Rion's perception of realty, making it more difficult for his opponent to read his movement, floating to be temporary unassailable, and even being lethal in hand to hand combat, as well as the powers he showed in the first battle. However, he is also vulnerable to the same computer virus that destroyed Dorothy. Gallery Gare r ash03.jpg|Ash in the uranium refinery after just smashing a canister of waste uranium, which he then consumes shortly after. 40546292.jpg|By ingesting uranium, Ash can cause his body to go critical and spread radiation all around his surroundings. The pale light around him signals this state. 40546276.jpg|Ash disappointed with Parano's second failed attempt to kill Rion. He would then execute Parano for his incompetence seconds afterwards. 40546281.jpg|Ash after explaining to Rion his motives and origins after the latter finds his devolpment program. Angered, Ash chokes Rion for siding with the humans instead of the Galerians. gale_r_ashc.jpg|Ash character artwork from the official Galerians: Ash website. Ash.jpg|CG render of Ash. 72.JPG|Lineart 73.JPG|Rough sketch and concepts 40546286.jpg|Ash seen during the intro. galguide06.jpg|Ash in the official Galerians strategy guide. vlcsnap-2013-03-10-21h51m51s223.png|Ash aiming the noise gun to Parano (off-screen.) vlcsnap-2013-03-10-21h52m31s144.png|Ash looking smug after killing Parano for his failure to kill Rion. vlcsnap-2013-03-10-22h00m00s226.png|Ash within the Data World. vlcsnap-2013-03-10-22h27m55s136.png|Ash tries to attempt to commit suicide by turning his gun on himself, but it fails and instead makes him short circuit. vlcsnap-2013-03-10-22h27m07s188.png|Ash holding Parano's knife to his neck during his mental breakdown during the final battle with Rion. Vlcsnap-2013-03-10-21h48m56s198.png|Spider, Ash, and Nitro look at Parano in his cowardly state. Vlcsnap-2013-03-10-19h12m28s92.png|Parano holding a knife to Ash's neck, suspicious of his motives. vlcsnap-2013-03-10-22h30m28s128.png|Ash shorting out during the final battle with Rion. 0000ddfp.jpeg|Photo of Ash obtained after beating the game on Normal with at least a B rank. F4d5f55c387f7bf6bb891af3446f1082.jpg|Rion, Lilia, Ash, and Pat (Galerians: Ash JP Manual) 0c250520219eca4570ff9c553e62e250.jpg adf6d1be287d53caaf2fd48b8d82eaee.jpg Trivia *Ash's name is made up of the first letters of his three passwords: Anger, Sadness, and Hate. Parano, Spider, and Nitro respectively also represent these emotions both in personality and their roles in Ash's life. Parano is constantly angry and full of murderous rage, Spider is always sad and wishes he wasn't born, and Nitro is full of hatred for the world and destroys because she is bored. *Ash is the only boss in Galerian: Ash who is not defeated during the first battle with Rion. *While Ash states he has no physical body, he stills fights Rion in the Waste Uranium Storage, outside his world of data. It should be noted that Dorothy, an A.I. like him, was able to create a physical body for herself. He could have done the same, even though it would not have been exactly the same human body he desired in his childhood. Since the Last Galerians are off-shoots of Ash and it is known that Parano existed in the real world, they also probably possessed physical bodies while not in the data world. *Humanity discovered that Ash can be killed by the same virus that killed Dorothy because, as explained by Lilia, a genetic abnormality with all of Dorothy's creations meant that they could all be killed by the virus program. Although Ash was not a truly physical entity like the first Galerians, he still was able to be killed by the virus program as demonstrated by Rion (who had previously had the virus program written onto his brain by Lilia) after the final boss fight with Ash. *His status, as an A.I. rebel to its creator, another A.I, discontent with his programming, with a strong desire for freedom and disgust for human flesh, as well as frustration to not understand the protagonist's reasons for fight, is similar to Agent Smith from Matrix franchise. However, Smith maintains these features to the very end, differently by Ash. *Ash was technically the most successful of the Galerians produced by Dorothy. He was successful in destroying the human world and was extremely close to causing humanity's extinction, which was one of Dorothy's main goals. *Ash is voiced in English by Dave Wittenberg, who was also the English voice actor of Rion Steiner and Cain in the Galerians: Rion OVA. *Ash shows the vastest array of abilities. Arguably, since he is a computer program in a world of data, without a physical body, he has much less limits to his power. *Ash is one of Dorothy's creations with the strongest sense of self, alongside Rita and Rion. All three also shows openly disgust towards the role their mother planned for them. However, Rita finally surrendered, and asked for death. Ash and Rion, by contrast, both rebelled and managed to destroy her in some way. *He and Rion, arguably Dorothy's most powerful and precious creations, suffered her cruelty even more than their "siblings". Ironically, both rebelled, humiliated and destroyed her in some way. Interestingly, Rion, who didn't realized his role until the end of the first game, looks extremely determinate to take distances from her. Ash instead, that knowingly suffered Dorothy's abuses from birth, looks to be in somehow influenced by her; as Rion states Ash is following their mother's footprints by enacting the war. Also, Rion was not supposed to be a Galerian, but is then revealed to be one. Ash, by contras, was supposed to be one, but later was revealed to be something else, more specifically an A.I. Category:Antagonists Category:Galerians Category:Last Galerians Category:Males Category:Characters